It’s difficult to believe that, of all places, Charlottesville VA has become the latest Civil War battleground. This town is home to the University of Virginia, which was founded by several Founding Fathers, one of whom — Thomas Jefferson — was from the area. It’s generally a very progressive island within the sea of Virginia’s conservative interior. In fact, that may be why it has become a battle-zone. Some time ago, the city decided to take down some Confederate statues on city property … and today’s Confederates went berserk over that. Ever since, they’ve been raging and fuming about it. Apparently, taking down a statue is the same thing as physically attacking the poor little things.

Echoing the May 13 rally at the foot of Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue, hundreds of torch-wielding white nationalists who are attending Saturday’s Unite the Right rally gathered at the University of Virginia and marched to the Rotunda, chanting, “You will not replace us.”

After the march, which began at UVa’s Nameless Field, reached the Rotunda, police later declared an unlawful assembly. Protesters and opponents alike reported being affected by pepper spray.

At the feet of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, fights began breaking out and some wielding tiki torches swung them at people. At least one person was arrested, and several people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

The ralliers shouted many of the same chants at the May event, such as “blood and soil,” but this time, they declared that Charlottesville was their city now.

This Confederacy worship is asinine and juvenile, not to mention irrational and pointless. I’ll repeat here what I said back in May:

The way some Southerners venerate Confederates is, quite frankly, pathetic. It’s almost as though they aren’t aware the South lost the Civil War and they’re still fighting it … or wishing they could. It’s all very childish. The Confederacy, ultimately, was a failed attempt to break from the Union and establish a new state. Yes, folks, that’s right: It was a failure … militarily, economically, administratively, and in every other conceivable way. Continuing to worship it makes no sense at all. None! It’s all very childish, in fact.

Yes, I know all about the “Lost Cause of the Confederacy” trope, which holds that the Confederacy was a righteous, noble state defeated by insidious and unjust forces in the North. Far from being a failure, the Confederacy was right, and remains so to this day. All of that, of course, is rank bullshit … a steaming load heaped right out the back of the barn. But you can’t tell Southerners that. They’re not listening, at all, because telling them otherwise is a way of trying to demolish their “heritage” and wipe them all out. None of that is happening, of course, but they prefer to believe it is because it makes them feel better to feel downtrodden and put out.

It’s time for these latter-day Confederates to grow the fuck up already, stop worshipping their precious (failed!) Confederacy, and act like real Americans, fercryinoutloud.